Master Plant Dieta

The master plant dieta is a fundamental part of Amazonian shamanism wherein the ‘dietero’ adheres to a very specific diet, enters isolation in the forest, and ingests a liquid preparation of a plant in order to receive the teaching and healing powers that the plant’s spirit holds.

A plant diet is a process by which you open yourself to the knowledge and healing power of the plants and come into communion with the spirit of the plant. Plant diets have the potential to bring about profound healing, transformation, and learning in ways beyond the comprehension of the rational mind.

The plant dieta is a profoundly powerful transformative process by which one undergoes a journey of healing, learning, or spiritual awakening with the help and guidance of one or more powerful healer or teacher plants. Through the plant dieta, one can heal and transform oneself on all levels: physical, psychological, emotional, energetic, and spiritual. Through the dieta one can open oneself up to one’s innate connection to the universe, to one’s true nature, and to one’s innate power.

A master plant is a special type of plant that transmits knowledge, guidance, and teachings to the dieter. With master plant diets, the boundary between healing and learning can become blurred. Sometimes healing is in the teaching itself and vice versa. Master plants can open up your visionary and dreaming abilities, and then

How Can a Dieta Help Me?

The dieta is an essential and core part of the healing and shamanic practices of most indigenous tribes of the Amazon jungle and has been used for thousands of years for:

Healing the body, mind and spirit and warding off disease
Empowering oneself with knowledge, wisdom, understanding and abilities endowed by the plants
Deepening ones connection to oneself, to the plants and to the universe
Expanding the consciousness and awareness
Purification of the energy body
Spiritual protection
Rite of passage into adulthood and the shamanic path
Increasing energy, stamina and focus

Among many other things.

Through the dieta, one can purify the body, mind, and spirit of toxins, parasites, emotional and psychic blockages, deep-rooted traumas, self-limiting beliefs, mental viruses, and negative energy residues. Through the dieta one can transform one’s life and awaken to one’s true potential and reconnect with one’s true nature and source. The plant dieta can open up one’s psychic and spiritual abilities and provide you with gifts that will empower you to follow your newfound calling in life.

How Does It Work?

In order to open oneself and come into communion with the plants, you must be willing to make a commitment to the process. A limited diet is required to allow the plants to move through you uninhibited. Certain foods and substances need to be limited or avoided in order to make space for the plants to enter the body. Many of the dietary restrictions will depend on the plant you are dieting with and the nature of the dieta itself; others are best avoided regardless of the plant one is dieting with.

The plants work not only on the body but also the mind and spirit. For this reason, the diet extends into all aspects of one’s lifestyle. Certain activities and energetic exchanges need to be avoided in order to safely undergo this profound healing and learning process.

During Dieta

The kinds of dietary and lifestyle restrictions you will need to adhere to depend on the type of plant you will be dieting with, as well as the nature of the dieta. For milder plants such as piñon blanco, bobinsana, or ajo sacha, the conditions do not need to be as strict as with stronger plants such as chiric sanango or ayahuma.

As a general rule, the dieter will need to adhere to these dietary and lifestyle restrictions, regardless of what plant they are dieting:

Little or no intake of salt, sugar, spices, oils, caffeine, alcohol, meat, processed foods
No sex or sexual arousal, this includes masturbation and thinking about sex
No use of toothpaste, insect repellent, sun screen, shampoo, or any products like these unless they are made with entirely natural ingredients
Limited contact with others – some dietas will call for complete isolation, others not, but spending time alone is important for any dieta

Post Dieta

The post dieta is the process one should adhere to after the dieta is officially closed. This is a very important part of the dieta.

Generally, after completing a master plant dieta, the dieter should avoid sex, alcohol, caffeine, pork, and spicy food for at least 1 week after officially terminating the dieta. This is the bare minimum; many master plant dietas will call for a longer and stricter post-dieta period.

Types of Dieta

The reasons for doing a dieta are as diverse as the plants themselves, but for the sake of understanding, they can be put into these two categories, two types of dietas:
Dieta for Healing
Dieta for Learning

Dietas for healing are used for healing all forms of ailments: physical, psychological, emotional, energetic, and spiritual. Dietas for learning are for awakening one’s innate potential and power, for example, awakening one’s ability to heal others.

These dietas differ in many ways. The plants used, the way the plant is prepared and ingested, the dietary and lifestyle restrictions, and the duration of the dieta—all these factors will vary depending on what type of dieta it is.

Dietas for learning involve dieting with special plants that are known to impart knowledge, understanding, and guidance to the dietero. These plants open up one’s visionary and dreaming abilities. These plants are known as master plants.

Each plant has its own unique energy, its own unique spectrum of phyto-chemicals, and therefore its own unique abilities when it comes to healing and teaching. Not all plants are master plants. Chuchuhuasi, clavohuasca, and setico, for example, are all extremely powerful plants to diet with when it comes to healing and purification of one’s body (both physical and energetic), mind, and spirit, but these plants will not open you up energetically and psychically the way master plants do. They will not guide you and teach you through your dreams in the way the master plants do.

Many master plants tend to be powerful healing plants too. Bobinsana, for example, this plant is just as likely to be used in healing dietas as it is in learning dietas.

The Plants

Just about every plant found in nature has healing abilities; having an understanding of the nature of the plants allows you to choose the right plant to diet with for your intentions, whether it be to heal specific ailments or to learn. Master plants are plants that will teach you when you open yourself up to receive the knowledge of the plants. Not all plants are master plants, but all plants have the power to heal and to benefit your life when you understand how to work with them. The following are some of the plants we use at Mai Niti for various purposes:

Ayahuma is an extremely powerful master plant that is typically only dieted by advanced dieteros who have previous experience dieting with milder plants. Ayahuma can help the dietero to develop great strength, grounding, and stability and help the dietero to release deep traumas and emotions stored in the psyche and energy body. Ayahuma is considered to be one of the most advanced master plant dietas, and it is advisable that one only undertakes this dieta under the guidance of a curandero who has experience with this plant.

Bobinsana

Bobinsana (Calliandra angustifolia) is a tree that produces bright pink starburst flowers. Bobinsana is a powerful shamanic plant, deeply respected among the indigenous people of the Amazon. It is well known for its power to open the heart and to heal psychospiritual and emotional wounds of the heart, such as grief, pain of loss, and heartbreak. Bobinsana is a powerful ally in releasing trauma and healing deep wounds from childhood, past relationships, and physical/psychological abuse. Bobinsana gifts the dietero with a greater capacity for love, compassion, and empathy.

Chiric sanango

Chiric sanango, along with ayahuma, is considered one of the most powerful master plant dietas. Chiric sanango can provide deep, integrative healing on all levels. Sanango is known to transmit profound wisdom, healing, and protection to the dietero.

Oje

Oje is a powerful cleansing medicine that is well known for its purgative abilities. Dieting with this medicine is excellent for cleansing the body and mind of the toxic residue left by strong addictions such as drug addiction.

Tamamuri

Tamamuri is a powerful plant for purification and detoxification of both the physical body and the energy body. Tamamuri can help the dieter release trauma and negative emotional energy trapped in the energy body.

Palisangre

This plant is used for correcting the diet when it goes wrong.